Wilson found Sidney Rice behind the secondary for a 46-yard touchdown with 1:18 remaining, and the Seahawks rallied for 14 points in the final 7:31 to stun the New England Patriots 24-23 on Sunday.

The matchup between the Patriots' No. 1 ranked offense and Seattle's No. 1 defense instead turned in to a starring performance for Wilson. And a shocking rally that gave Pete Carroll a win in the first matchup against the franchise he coached for three seasons in the late 1990s. Carroll was bouncing around the sideline in celebration after one of his biggest pro victories.

"I hadn't even thought about that. That was a long time ago and there have been a lot of games," Carroll said. "I really love Robert Kraft, he's a great man and he's been great throughout the years about our separation of sorts. I respect the heck out of him. But I'm a competitor and, heck yeah, I want to win against those guys."

Wilson hit Braylon Edwards on fourth down for a 10-yard TD to get the Seahawks within 23-17. After a pair of holds by Seattle's defense, Wilson found Rice streaking open on a double move for his third touchdown pass of the game. Steven Hauschka's extra point gave Seattle (4-2) the lead with 78 seconds remaining.

Brady had a final chance to make up for all the opportunities the Patriots (3-3) squandered. Starting at his 20 with 1:14 left, Brady missed Brandon Lloyd then was sacked by Jason Jones, the first sack all day by Seattle. His pass for Aaron Hernandez, back after being out since Week 2 with an ankle injury, was incomplete, and Wes Welker was stopped short on fourth down.

Seattle's winning touchdown came after Carroll showed confidence in his defense. The Seahawks went three-and-out with 3:20 left, and Carroll risked never seeing the ball again and punted.

Rookie Delivers Late Again

Russell Wilson became the first rookie since the NFL merger to throw two game-winning TD passes in the last two minutes of a game in one season. He also became just the fifth QB to do it in the last four seasons. Here's the list:

Year

Player, Team

2012

Russell Wilson, Seahawks

2011

Matthew Stafford, Lions

2010

Drew Brees, Saints

2009

Kyle Orton, Broncos

2009

Carson Palmer, Bengals

-- Elias Sports Bureau

Even though Seattle had three timeouts and the two-minute warning, it was still a risky proposition.

"I wasn't surprised. As a defense we want the game on our shoulders," Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner said. "We have the confidence in us; we know Pete has the confidence in us."

Seattle forced the Patriots into just their fifth three-and-out of the season, and only 14 seconds elapsed before Zoltan Mesko punted. Leon Washington returned the punt 25 yards and Seattle started its winning drive at its 43.

Wilson faked a handoff and looked deep. Rice was on an option route, and the coverage directed Rice to the middle. After faking to the outside, he was wide open.

"It was a heck of a throw. When I came out of my break, the whole time I was looking at the ball in the air and it was so pretty," Rice said. "I was just running, I was like 'You've got to catch up to it, you've got to catch up to it,' and I was able to track it down."

Wilson finished 16 of 27 for 293 yards, the best day of his young career. He added Brady to an impressive list of quarterbacks he's topped this year: Tony Romo, Aaron Rodgers and Cam Newton. It was also the fifth time in six games Wilson found himself in a late drive with the game on the line.

"I think I'm always comfortable no matter the situation, I think I'm just more experienced," Wilson said. "Being in those situations you have to trust what you see, you have to be quick with your decisions, but also believe in your decisions and just be decisive with the football."

Brady finished 36 of 58 for 395 yards and touchdown passes of 1 yard to Hernandez and 46 yards to Welker in the first half. Welker had 10 catches for 138 yards, his fourth straight game over 100. Brady topped 300 yards passing for the 49th time, but was intercepted in the second half by Richard Sherman and Thomas after going 179 attempts without being picked off. One of Brady's interceptions came in the end zone, yet another squandered chance by the Patriots.

New England came away with just one touchdown in six trips inside Seattle's 20. The most damaging came at the end of the first half when coach Bill Belichick opted to throw with 6 seconds remaining instead of kicking the field goal from the Seattle 3. Brady was flagged for intentional grounding and the ensuing time runoff ended the half.

"You lose by one point and here are a lot of things we could have done better to not be in that situation," Brady said.

Seattle's defense gave up a season-high 475 yards after not allowing any of its first five opponents to top 300. The Patriots went eight consecutive drives without punting, and ran 85 offensive plays to the Seahawks' 55, yet could not get the touchdowns to put Seattle away.

Game notes

Hall of Fame DT Cortez Kennedy had his No. 96 retired during a halftime ceremony. He joins Steve Largent (No. 80), Walter Jones (No. 71) and Seattle's 12th Man crowd (No. 12) as the only retired jerseys in team history. ... Lynch's 41 yards were his fewest since Week 8 of 2011, when he was held to 24 yards by Cincinnati. ... Brady's 58 pass attempts were most ever against Seattle. ... The Patriots are the first team with three losses by two points or fewer in their first six games since the 1960 Dallas Texans of the AFL, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Research Notes

The Patriots had the lead late in the 4th quarter Sunday before the Seahawks scored the go-ahead/game-winning TD with 1:18 to play.
Including the postseason, it was the 7th time the Patriots lost a game in which it held a lead in the final 5 minutes of regulation since 2009 (T-3rd most in the NFL). Only the Redskins (8) and Dolphins (8) have more over that span.

NEXT LEVEL: Russell Wilson had a 91.4 Total QBR in Sunday's win over the Patriots, the highest single-game QBR of his career and the highest for a Seahawks quarterback since Matt Hasselbeck in Week 3 of 2008 against the Rams (97.4).

Highest Single-Game Total QBR - Seahawks Since 2008

The Patriots' defense controlled Marshawn Lynch on Sunday, holding him to 41 yards on 15 rushes. Lynch posted season-low totals in yards (33), first downs (2) and yards after contact (17) on his 12 rushes inside the tackles. Lynch entered Sunday's game with 434 rushing yards inside the tackles, most in the league, and was averaging 2.0 yards after contact per rush inside the tackles, third best among players with at least 50 rushes.

Russell Wilson completed as many passes deeper than 20 yards downfield today (five) as he has all season, including the 46-yard game-winning touchdown pass to Sidney Rice with 1:27 left in the game. Wilson's average pass on Sunday traveled 15.2 yards, more than twice as deep as his 7.5 average through the first five games of the season.

Tom Brady threw a career-high 58 pass attempts during Sunday's loss to the Seahawks. The Patriots are 3-0 this season when running the ball on at least half of plays from scrimmage and 0-3 when attempting more passes than rushes.